However Youthful Jack won't race in Stitt's name - he has transferred the smart sprinter to Spreyton trainer Adam Trinder to repay a favour.

``Adam was very good to me when I came down a few years ago to win the Launceston Cup with Precise Timing - he rode all my trackwork,'' Stitt said yesterday.

``So when I decided to send Youthful Jack to Tasmania, I rang Adam to see if he'd take him.

``The horse has been down there for 10 days and, all going well, we'll leave him there for all three big weight-for-age races.

``He's proving very hard to place at home - they've been giving him 58 kilograms every time I enter him for a race in Sydney - so I thought he'd be better off running in your WFA races where they all get the same weight.''

Stitt has always owned Youthful Jack but has sent the gelding to several different trainers.

``I trained him myself when he won his first four starts then I left him with Rex Lipp in Queensland till the end of his two-year-old season,'' Stitt explained.

``I later gave him to (Sydney trainer) Alan Denham who won some nice races with him including the group 2 Royal Sovereign Stakes at Randwick.''

Youthful Jack returned to Stitt's stables at Taree mid-2011 and has since won at Wyong and recorded numerous city placings to take his career earnings to $765,000.

``He had a throat operation in the middle of all that which is why he went for a while without winning,'' the trainer said.

``But he's breathing good now, touch wood.''

Stitt, who has been training for more than 45 years, owned 2008 Australian Oaks winner Heavenly Glow (also trained by Denham) and she was his first group 1 winner.

The trainer has had a long association with 53-year-old jockey Robert Thompson, who rode Precise Timing in the Launceston Cup and returns tonight to partner Youthful Jack.

``He didn't take much persuading to get him to go down,'' Stitt said.

Youthful Jack is $3.20 favourite in TAB Sportsbet's fixed-odds market.